a Blender modeling project

3D model of a Bone Tomahawk

3D model of a bone tomahawk made in blender with a little help of Affinity Designer and Quixel Mixer

Creating a 3D Model of a Bone Tomahawk

Working on something a bit different

I was planning a scene when I came up with the idea of modeling a bone tomahawk. The reason for using bone and not metal is somewhat simple.
The metal blade was not present at that specific period.
The native Americans used a jaw bone from a deer or similar to fashion the blade. Teeth were often left on, as seen in the images.

I have taken artistic freedom in making this tomahawk.
It is in no way an accurate depiction of Native American weaponry.
My hard-surface models usually have materials such as wood or metal.
Most of them I can find using Quixel Mixer. Bone is another story.
I needed to use an image of a jaw bone to fashion a PBR material.
It’s not perfect, but it works for my intentions.

Working with details for a 3d model

It looks OK up close but perfect at a bit of a distance.
When I make models for Unreal Engine, I put in a lot of work.
I create several different levels of details for my model, so it works for any distance. Unreal Engine is good at creating LOD levels. Sometimes you have to make your model versions to keep the overall shape.

The Tooth is a good example. For my first version Unreal Engine would probably break the outline of the tomahawk trying to keep the polygons down. I could make a low poly version with the right shape and bake the details onto it. I might do that for this model as well in the future. For now, this level is perfect for my needs.

Creating a low poly version

My original model had around 74 000 polygons. That is too much even for me. To make a manageable model while keeping the details. I baked the details of the high poly model down to a low poly model in Blender. I also had to rework the teeth. The result is a good-looking model with 2 789 Polygons.

Check out the Model on SketchFab

I really like Sketchfab

Sketchfab is the best way that I know of to showcase 3D-Models. It makes it easy to check the topology and the materials. The client does not have to trust that the model is as I claim. For me, it saves a lot of time figuring out what areas of a model might interest a potential client. Why not check out my Sketchfab Portfolio and see for yourself.

This website is updated sporadically and if you like to know what I am doing right now you can always check out my Instagram